MARKET CLOSE: Techs, blue chips gain ground

Technology stocks made sharp gains in late trading as the Nasdaq composite closed up 67 points to 3,912.11. The Dow Jones industrial average shot up 138 points to 10,542.99 on optimism the Federal Reserve Board will leave interest rates unchanged.

"The Dow Jones is trying to recover from an excessive sell-off in old economy stocks," said Rao Chalasani, chief investment strategist, First Union Securities. "If the economy is slowing down, obviously earnings are going to be slower, but that doesn't mean we're going into recession."

The National Association of Realtors said existing home sales were up 4.3 percent to an annual rate of 5.09 million, higher than April's revised rate of 4.88 million, and above economists' expectations.

Apple Computer (AAPL) led PC stock higher, gaining 2 7/16 to 54 1/8. Dell Computer (DELL) rose 1 5/8 to 49 1/16 while Gateway (GTW) and Compaq (CPQ) shed 7/8 and 9/16 a share, respectively.

AT&T (NYSE: T) dropped 1 5/8 to 32 3/4 after Salomon Smith Barney cut its earnings per share estimate for 2000 to $2.33 from $2.40. GTE (GTE) lopped off 2 5/16 to 67 7/16 while Sprint (FON) and WorldCom (WCOM) each shed 1/4 a share.

Webvan Group (Nasdaq: WBVN) shaved off 1 13/32 to 7 5/16 after announcing it will acquire HomeGrocer.com (Nasdaq: HOMG), down 1 7/32 to 6 7/8, in a stock swap valued at $1.2 billion.

Lycos Inc. (Nasdaq: LCOS) inched up 27/32 to 54 31/32 after saying will buy MetroSplash, owner of Matchmaker.com, a personal classifieds site for about $44 million in cash.

Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) slid 6 to 119 5/16 after it announced the introduction of Corporate Yahoo!, and a host of partners who will provide technology for the customized enterprise portal.

America Online (AOL) lost 1 11/16 to 51 13/16. Amazon.com (AMZN) rose 1/16 to 33 15/16 and eBay (EBAY) closed off 1 7/16 to 52 7/16.

Among widely held networking stocks, Cisco Systems (CSCO) edged up 3/16 to 62 13/16; 3Com (COMS) moved up 2 to 50 3/8; Lucent Technologies (LU) inched up 1/4 to 59 5/16 and Nortel Networks (NT) closed up 2 1/4 to 68 1/8.

Scient Corp. (Nasdaq: SCNT) tumbled 9 5/8 to 37 7/16 after Banc of America downgraded the stock on concern some of its troubled 'dot-com' clients may not be able to pay up.

Arrow Electronics Inc. (NYSE: ARW) gained 7/16 to 34 13/16 after it said its second-quarter sales would reach a record $3 billion and its earnings would exceed its first-quarter profit by 25 percent, topping Wall Street's current expectations by a wide margin.

Intel (INTC) closed off 1/4 to 134 1/8. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) lost 1 3/4 to 86 and IBM (IBM) picked up 3 1/4 to 115 1/8.

Microsoft (MSFT) closed up 1 13/16 to 79 1/2 while Oracle (ORCL) and Sun Microsystems (SUNW) added 3 3/16 and 3 7/8 a share, respectively.